The Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games ended on Friday, 13 November, fourteen days after the opening on 31 October. It was the first time the Olympic movement had come to Africa, and African athletes made the most of it. African teams won 74 medals, a record for the continent at a single edition. The previous best was the 56 medals won in Buenos Aires in 2018.
Close to 2,700 athletes took part across the three host cities. Medals were awarded in 151 events, and 95 national Olympic committees won at least one. China finished well ahead of everyone else with 18 gold medals and 33 in total. Japan was second with 11 golds and 28 medals overall.
Egypt came next, in fourth place, and was the best African team with six gold, one silver and five bronze medals. Swimmer Zain Ali won three of those golds, in the 50, 100 and 200 metre butterfly. Ethiopia finished fifth on the strength of its runners. Yomif Abebe won the 800 metres, Wabi Seblega the 1,500 metres and Junedin Abdo the 2,000 metre steeplechase, which put Ethiopia top of the athletics table. Kenya in eighth and South Africa in ninth also made the top ten.
Senegal had more at stake than hosting. It sent 136 athletes in 23 sports, its largest team ever at an Olympic event. The investment paid off. The hosts finished sixth with 12 medals, five gold and seven bronze, and won every one of the five finals they reached. Beach wrestling, a close cousin of the traditional wrestling that Senegal loves, gave the crowds in Saly their best moments, with titles for Ndeye Khady Anna Diatta, Elisabeth Diatta and Maguette Diop. The men’s 3×3 basketball team also won gold.
Some smaller sporting nations had their moment too. Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar and Zambia each won a bronze medal, and Gambia’s Mustapha Jadama took silver in the 400 metres. Medals like these show how far African sport is spreading, alongside the gold won by Egypt and Ethiopia.
The longer test now begins. The venues built or renovated for the Games, and Dakar’s stated ambition to make their legacy last, will be judged over the coming years, after the spotlight has moved on.